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Wonderful character development!

It is a performances centric movie

Absolutely Fantastic

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I'm so glad I saw this film! It shows the power of solidarity - people of all backgrounds, gender, and whatever other category might otherwise be used to separate them, uniting together to gain the power and dignity they deserve as human beings. It took some of them a while to learn, but the common struggle tears down walls. Rise up, and push everyone else up with you!

Esperanza Quintero is a downtrodden wife of a miner in New Mexico. She's sad to be pregnant again raising a child in the dead-end place. The village was called San Marcos when she was a child but it is now strictly a company town called Zinc Town. Her husband Ramon is trying to organize for wage equality with the white miners but prejudice is against them. After the dangerous conditions kill a miner, the men shut down the mine and vote to strike. The women struggle to find respect from their own husband as they demand sanitation.The story is compelling. It's a simple story of the underdog. I really don't like the narration and the amateur actors do struggle. The idea of the blacklisted filmmakers is more impressive than the product. The directions are static and the acting lacks power.

The propagation of fear of the "other", or the unknown, is a fervent device used by governments for the control of the masses (the population). In the 1940's and 1950's in the west (particularly the United States - and to a lesser extent the UK), the common object of fear was the spread of Communism. In 1947, this paranoia about the infiltration of socialist ideologies into US politics, culminated in the organisation of HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), which began a witch hunt for any persons involving themselves (allegedly) in Communist politics and ideas. Propaganda was in full swing by 1954, and the hunt was extended into the arts, particularly Hollywood - with its "Harbouring" of socialism - which led to the imprisonment of "The Hollywood Ten" which included the writers and filmmakers involved in the making of Salt of the Earth - which was inevitably blacklisted.With a largely non-professional cast (only five were professionals), this neo-realist style film tells the story - based on real events - of a workers strike for equality of pay and conditions for American- Mexicans working in the Delaware Zinc mines in New Mexico. Told from the perspective of Esperanza Quintero (Rosaura Revueltas - one of the five actual actors), the film opens with a domestic scene and her narration, as she outlines their social conditions, and the small community. Her husband, Ramon (incredibly heartfelt performance by non-professional, Juan Chacon), signifies the "traditional" male, whose displays a reluctance for his wife to involve herself with nothing but the upkeep of the home, and the raising of their children (not a particularly revelatory experience in the 1950's).After the failure of the men - bound by union restrictions - to successfully picket the mine, the women of the village take their places, creating a barrier to the entrance. This destabilises the workers union to begin with, and fundamentally disrupts the home life of Ramon and Esperanza - whose conventional roles are reversed, creating an emasculated man-of-the-house. The reactions of the mining management/owners leads to the arrest of all the women, which creates an even greater sense of solidarity between the women, and eventually (once they realise the importance of this strike) the men.Within the context of this film, it is hard to believe in this day that this film (which perpetuates socialist ideas - Communist theories) was regarded as dangerous to the point of being blacklisted. However, what this part of history highlights is that these political ideas are simply dangerous to a hegemony of market power. That is, the fear of Communism (or socialism) is simply that it would - in theory - give equal rights and fair wages to the workers of any company or corporation. Of course, if socialism did spread, this would mean the obliteration of the free market economy that has so far simply created a greater divide of rich and poor in the West, and ultimately led to such incredible greed, and intrinsically creating the banking crisis of 2008.With a strong cast of actors and locals, this film is both enlightening and emotionally mature. It is itself a piece of pure propaganda, but it skillfully emphasises the socialist ideal of equality. The film also raises some interesting feminist questions - a movement that didn't really become part of popular culture until the late '60's and '70's - and gravitates towards alternative social roles for women. It was of course ignored by the Hollywood system, but eventually found audiences within film schools and workers unions. A common reaction was astounding: The Hollywood Reporter (a trade magazine) made a bold and frivolous statement claiming that the film was made under the direct orders of the Kremlin. It is an incredibly important piece of social history, that is also successful as an interesting and entertaining slice of cinema.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

This propaganda film - and that is what it is, and that is not meant as a slight, it is what it is - takes an amazingly even-handed approach to the events surrounding a long strike in New Mexico during the 1950s. The politics remain relevant today for union workers and so forth, but for the larger audience, it also is a superb study in real human dynamics. There are mildly annoying aspects put in for dramatic effect - the strikers' wives are portrayed as a bit too noble and confrontational at times, the company men a bit too evil, the miners themselves as a bit too helpless and uncaring - but this still is one of the best studies of real human reactions to a difficult situation.It is inevitable that things break down into an us-versus-them battle, and that is the film's greatest weakness. Once the striking miners are prohibited by court order from picketing, the women all too willingly take their places. This causes all sorts of power shifts within families, portrayed well by the Quintero family played by Ramon Chacon and Rosaura Revueltas. So we get some healthy servings of "this is my life, see how you like it" from the women, causing the idle workers to re-examine their attitudes toward women and their jobs and their lives. Of course, there is the larger power imbalance between the striking workers and the mining company, summarized by Chacon's repeated observation that it is necessary to look at the "larger picture." The human dynamics spiral out of control to the point where it is unclear how Ramon Quintero really feels about developments, as he turns to drink and observes that the women "Won't listen to a man any more." But, of course, everything turns out fine in the end for the workers, as we all knew from the beginning it had to, after everyone has learned some hard lessons.The feminist subplot, though, is interesting but essentially a sideshow, put aside immediately once the strike is won and the workers get what they really want. The meat of the story is the confrontation between the poor locals and the authorities. That the outcome remains in doubt until the end of the film is a testament to the skill and craft of the makers of this film, including numerous non-professional actors. There are clear implications of mass power, with the sheriff's men repeatedly stymied by the sheer numbers of the workers and their families. If you want to read "Communism" into that, well, that's a perfectly reasonable implication, though certainly not the only one.The politics are clear, and there is no doubt about the motivations of those who made the film, but the message is kept as subtle as possible. There was no need to ban the film, that was sheer over-reaction. For what it is, you will probably not find a better examination of the human dynamics behind the struggle of workers for a better life.